NHL Game Preview - Pittsburgh at Washington

Sun Feb 2, 2020 12:30 PM EST

The Pittsburgh Penguins come to Washington for their first meeting of the season with the Capitals on Sunday afternoon.

Alex Ovechkin continues to be the story for the Capitals. He scored twice more in Friday's 5-3 victory in Ottawa. Ovechkin now has posted 11 goals in the past five games -- which included back-to-back hat tricks against the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders.

The 34-year-old scored goals No. 694 and 695 of his long career Friday and jumped past Mark Messier (694) into eighth place on the NHL's all-time list for goals scored. The 11 goals in five games have vaulted Ovechkin past four Hockey Hall of Famers in just 19 days -- Teemu Selanne, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Messier.

Ovechkin is trying to become the eighth NHL player to reach 700 goals, and now he's just five goals away.

"When it is close to 700 goals, of course you are going to try to finish it up as quick as you can," Ovechkin said before the game to NHL.com. "But, yeah, I just don't try to think about much and try to do my best out there."

Ovechkin is three goals from joining all-time goals leader Wayne Gretzky as the only players in NHL history with at least 11 40-goal seasons. Gretzky scored at least 40 goals 12 times during his 20 NHL seasons, but he did it with a few different teams.

Ovechkin would be the first player to have 11 seasons with at least 40 goals with one team. He is tied for the NHL lead with 37 goals with David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins. Ovechkin was named the NHL's First Star of the Month for January.

John Carlson finished with two assists in the win and now has 62 points this season, tops among NHL defensemen. The second assist moved him past Calle Johansson for most assists in franchise history from a defenseman (362).

Rookie goalie Ilya Samsonov won his 11th straight decision and made 25 saves. He's just the third rookie goalie in NHL history to win 11 consecutive decisions. Samsonov is 16-2-1 with a 2.12 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage.

Pittsburgh also comes into Washington on a roll, having played much better of late with some key injured players back.

The Penguins defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 on Friday night when Sidney Crosby scored just 55 seconds into overtime at home.

Crosby and long-time running mate Evgeni Malkin both finished with one goal and two assists as Pittsburgh improved to 7-2-0 in their last nine games. Also, the Penguins have gone 15-4-1 in their last 20 contests and have pulled closer in the Metropolitan Division, six points behind the first-place Caps.

This is the time of the season where the games mean more, the points are tougher to get, and the Penguins don't want to waste any chances.

"We've got a lot of division games, tough opponents," Crosby said to NHL.com. "Every point is crucial. I think you always look at this time of year when your team has to elevate your game, everyone else is doing the same. So we're going to try to do that."

The news was both good and bad for Pittsburgh regarding injuries coming out of the win over the Flyers.

Justin Schultz came back after missing the previous 16 games due to a lower-body injury, according to NHL.com, which also said he almost scored on his first shift.

However, Pittsburgh wasn't as lucky when it came to defenseman Chad Ruhwedel. He was injured late in the second period, and NHL.com said he did not play for the final 20 minutes, 55 seconds of the game, which left the Penguins with just five defensemen.

There was no update on Ruhwedel as of Saturday morning.

--Field Level Media